The Congress government in Karnataka has approved a seven-member committee’s recommendation to accord separate minority religion status to Lingayats. This comes even as Rahul Gandhi is taking an approach of soft Hindutva to counter Narendra Modi. Siddaramaiah is exploring home-grown solutions to ensure a Congress victory in the state. The BJP is caught between its Hindu nationalist ideological moorings and the assertion of a non-Hindu identity by the Lingayats. The community accounts for 17 percent of the state’s population and is a key support base of the BJP, especially its strongman BS Yeddyurappa.